Gotta Believe
Gotta Believe was the eleventh album released on the Houndwire Bandcamp. It was released on 9th November, 2014Archive, which proves date before being pulled in January. Track Listing * Culture Factory * Revenge of the Snakeoids * Gotta Believe * Mei! - Cutx (Endlyng RMX) Note from Endlyng Released along with the album was a note from Endlyng: Hey there! If you're reading this, you're one of the maybe 6 people who downloaded my album, and for that, I thank you. The idea of somebody else having my songs downloaded to their computer (or possibly even their Ipod :0!!!) is really weird to me, 'cause I thought the only people who got their songs downloaded were the hotshots on the Top 40 who chill in their pools of money and prostitutes. I'm definitely not at the point where I have prostitutes made out of money, nor do I think I ever will be, but I am humbled nonetheless. I suppose I should talk about something to make reading this worth your time. Well, let's see... I shall regale you with a tale of how Gotta Believe came to be. The track "Gotta Believe" itself is probably my most ambitious track to date. Yes, I've attempted vocals before (See "Bad Cop Good Cop Red Cop Blue Cop." Actually, on second thought, don't), but looking back I'm not too happy with how that came out. On Bad Cop, I tried to sing with my natural singing voice, but steeped a bunch of vocoder stuff onto it when I got too self-conscious. This time, I had FL Studio's vocal synthesizer do it. I'm not 100% satisfied with this attempt either, but I think it was an improvement at least. The track's name is the last vestige of a Parappa the Rapper themed album I was working on. In fact, the original album art was going to look like the Parappa box art, but with Endlyng on it and instead of "Playstation," it would have said "Houndwire." Wouldn't that have been cool? But I digress. The final album art is actually a whiteboard drawing I did with the colors inverted. I fancy myself decent at doodling c: If you can find the little Endlyng face in all that chaos, you win. In contrast to "Gotta Believe," "Revenge of the Snakeoids" is a more typical Endlyng song. I don't have much to say about it, except that the eponymous Snakeoids are from Zombies Ate My Neighbors, which I have never played but very much want to. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a sucker for B-movies, and that game has a lot of the same appeal. Culture Factory was written in two sittings, and about 90% of the song was written in that first one. This track has a lot of really nasty drums in it; part of that drum pattern you hear was made with a Pokemon Diamond/Pearl soundfont and slowed down a lot. Other than that, not much to say. The Cutx remix was a lot of fun to do. I remixed that while Kiro remixed Time to Feed a while ago, so that was cool. Believe it or not, I tried to make a Gotta Believe music video, but then realized it was kinda shit. I'll definitely try again in the future, now that I know what worked and what didn't. I promise you will see a video from me eventually! I made the footage I have in the same way as the album cover; on a whiteboard with inverted colors. I was a bit nervous going in since I hadn't attepted stop motion since fifth grade (some friends and I made a Star Wars Lego animation. I was Boba Fett and Jabba the Hut). But I figured I could probably pull it off. Oh man, it was so time- consuming. I imagine once you get more practice your speed improves, but my God. My rig was a video camera secured to a fan with a bunch of rubber bands. Not the most elegant way to film a stop motion video, but it worked (sorta). Animation is something that I've always wanted to get into, but never have. Maybe I should delve into that a bit more. hmmmmmmmmmm. A friend and I jokingly talked about making a series called Mime Cops, in which two mimes are partners on the police force and solve crimes together. That would probably be my first foray into Flash, so keep your eyes open for a loose-cannon newbie and his gruff-but-with-a-heart-of-gold partner keeping the streets of Mimehattan safe. Well, that's everything I have to say (and more than you probably wanted me to). So I bid you a good day. Do something you've never done, like salads a little too much, and cause some mischief, you beautiful creature (x)u(x) Regards, Endlyng References